Jul. 10, 2015

The Ultimate Geek Road Trip

For most people, a road trip means sun, sky, sea, and sand. We at SciFri like those things too, but we’ll take our sightseeing with an extra side of science. Why not jump in the car for a trip to Holmdel, New Jersey’s Horn Antenna, where the detection of cosmic microwave background radiation confirmed the Big Bang? Or maybe you’d prefer to get your nerd on with a trip to Arco, Idaho, the first town ever powered by nuclear energy. TheGeek Atlas author John Graham-Cumming joins Ira on-air to help us plot the ultimate geek road trip, spanning sites key to the history of science, technology, and mathematics. Plus, computer scientist Randal Olson weighs in with an algorithm to optimize your road trip route.

We also asked you for your top science and tech destinations—and you delivered! Check out the suggestions on the map below. Randal Olson optimized our road trip route (in blue) using a genetic algorithm. Read about how he did it here.